‘Drowsy Chaperone’ wakes up audiences to the beauty of life

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L-R: Jennasea Bauserman as The Drowsy Chaperone, Mark Torreso as Man in Chair, and Holly Weber as Janet Van de Graff in the Torrance Theatre production of “The Drowsy Chaperone.” Photo by Niko Montelibano.

And from there, audiences for “The Drowsy Chaperone” in Torrance will go on a trip back to the heyday of musical theater with a flashy jazz-age show.

“It’s got this wonderful, old-fashioned sense, and yet a modern sense, of humor and the music is so singable and memorable,” said Glenn Kelman, who’s directing “The Drowsy Chaperone,” for the Torrance Theatre Company.

The Tony Award-winning musical, with music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison and book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar, runs Aug. 13-27 at the James Armstrong Theatre.

It all begins with the houselights low as a man quietly appears on stage and puts on his favorite record: a recording of a 1928 musical that suddenly comes to life as the man sits back in a chair and looks on.

The cast of characters who jump out of the record includes a pair of lovers on the eve of their wedding, their best man, a socialite who is hosting the wedding and is a bit goofball who can’t always remember what’s going on, gangsters posing as chefs, a theater producer and the intoxicated and drowsy chaperone.

“He lives in a modern world and uses this play to escape the issues of his life,” Kelman said of the main character, the man in the chair.

“It’s a great emotional journey. I’m always attracted to a comedy that at one point can make you cry,” he added.

The man in the chair, who is essentially the narrator of the show, is portrayed by Mark Torreso, a company veteran who first appeared on the Armstrong stage in the company’s 2001 production of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”

“He has a passion for musical theater,” Torreso said of his character.

When he’s depressed, the man in the chair turns to musical theater for comfort and the particular album he plays is his favorite musical.

“When he begins to play it, the apartment comes to life. People come out of the refrigerator, everywhere and they dance and they sing and then we go into the story of the Drowsy Chaperone,” he said.

As the musical goes on in his apartment, the man in the chair is constantly being affirmed about his life, Torreso noted.

Many of the laughs will come from the bumbling and comical hostess Mrs. Tottendale, played by Cindy Shields, who’s been in more than two dozen Torrance Theatre productions.

Shields wasn’t familiar with the musical before she auditioned for the role.

But she immediately fell in love with the music, the over-the-top spirit and with how the story celebrates musical theater in general.

“I love the story within the story, how it’s about the beauty of theater, how it can say so much and mean so much to so many different people for so many different reasons,” she said.